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Kerisa Van Gorden

Dr. Stacey Isom-Campbell
ENGL-479-01: Writing Experience: Practicum
5 December 2016
Practicum Cover Letter
When I first thought of writing a sequel to Romeo and Juliet, the only things I knew were
that this idea needed to be a play and that the main characters romantic relationship would fall
apart. In terms of playwriting, I was both shocked and exhilarated to return to writing for the
stage after my positive introduction the previous semester. My exhilaration is easy to understand,
but my shock stemmed from the fact that from Freshman year all the way through this past
spring, I was confident that my Practicum would be the beginning of a novel. All throughout
high school, I practiced creative writing in prose, and I had already completed Introduction to
Fiction Writing and Advanced Fiction Writing in college before I even considered taking a
playwriting class. Nonetheless, a play is what I chose. The primary reason was because I did not
want to remove Shakespeares original characters from the stage. I know there are fiction-based
sequels and adaptations of Shakespeares classic romance, but I wanted to preserve a sense of
continuity between my play and Shakespeares, especially since my play begins in the middle of
his ending. I also wanted to focus in on the words and actions of the characters in a way that
playwriting is most conducive for. The concept of Romeo and Juliet needing to communicate
with each other was key in developing my theme, and playwriting is, by its nature, focused on
dialogue. Although I did not realize at the time how difficult it would be for me to write a full
one-act play with only a semesters worth of introductory experience, I do not regret my choice
or how far my inexperience set me back in terms of completing all of my proposed revisions.

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In terms of my theme and Romeo and Juliets relationship, the necessity for their
romance to failat least initiallybecame the foundation for my project. I developed my theme
by centering it around the necessity of choice in relationships, the hardship experienced in true
love, and the concept that single women can be happy and fulfilled. The importance of these
themes has grown for me over the past couple of years as I have struggled through my own
dating disasters and reflected on problems with the stereotypes of love at first sight and
soulmates. When I had my initial burst of inspiration about this project, it seemed time to start
exploring this new territory of realistic love and relationships in my creative writing.
As I thought about audience, I decided that I wanted my work to relate to young adults.
However, I did not intend to reach young adults by writing down to them. I believe the struggles
my play exploresromance vs. love and rich vs. poorare of interest to teenagers and are
subjects that they should have exposure to. That is where my focus on an age-specific audience
ends. From there, I have simply tried to write the best play I can, taking Madeleine LEngles
advice in Walking on Water that you dont write for children. You write for yourselves (136).
Regardless of who ends up watching or reading my play, I believe it is my duty to my readers
and to God to present my subject as honestly as I am able.
In the first draft of Touching the Other Side, I was extremely focused on maintaining
conflict and defining Romeos flaws, which actually proved detrimental to my theme for a
number of reasons. First, Juliet developed serious problems with inconsistency that went far
beyond the emotional imbalance of a typical teenager. Second, the focus on conflict allowed me
to ignore the little voice in my head every time it told me that my plot and character motivations
were making less and less sense. Third, Romeo actually ended up looking like the good guy
(when he didnt seem like an overly optimistic joke) who, despite Juliets accusations of being

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controlling, kept trying to pull her out of her insanity and provide her with stability and safety.
Below is a sample of Scene 1 of my first draft, which demonstrates some of these problems. To
set the action up, Romeo and Juliet are at an abandoned mill, and Juliet recently escaped from a
wrecked car. Romeo has already shot himself in the head, and his ghost is watching Juliet mourn
over his body.
JULIET: I may not know how to fire a gun(She scrambles around the car, looking for shards
of broken glass.)but I will find a way to join you. I wont let death keep us apart.
(She kneels next to Romeos body, shoves the glass into her wrists, and falls down, dead.)
ROMEO: JULIET!
(Stricken, Romeo finally breaks through the barrier and embraces Juliet. Juliet rises, moving
the third hidden body to take her place on top of Romeos body. Romeo helps Juliet up and holds
her against his chest.)
ROMEO: Oh, Julie. I never thought Id hold you again. But you didnt have to
JULIET: Romeo? Is this real?
ROMEO: Yeah, Julie. Youre dead, but youre not dreaming. Im really here, and Im never
gonna leave you again. I promise.
JULIET: But if this is real, then where are we?
ROMEO: Were...were at the mill. Its just we dont have bodies anymore. (Romeo points out
their bodies to Juliet. Juliet stares at the bodies and steps away from Romeo, clearly disturbed.)
ROMEO: (anxiously) Juliet? Hey, I know its strange, but you get used to it. It only took me a
couple minutes. Its not so bad being like this, you know? (He steps toward her and tries to take
her back into his arms. She hugs herself and backs into the car.) Isnt this what you wanted?
Didnt you want to be with me?
JULIET: I wanted to be with you alive. I wanted us to run off together, to have a life together.
ROMEO: We can still do that. Heck, we could go anywhere, do anything!
(Juliet shoves Romeo in the chest.)
JULIET: Thats not what I mean! I didnt just want us! (Romeo uses the momentum from Juliets
shove to pull her closer to him. He looks like hes comforting her, but hes really ignoring most
of what shes saying.) Its not that I dont want to be with you, I do. Its just...there were things I
wanted to do that were about more than being with you. Doesnt that make sense?
From this excerpt, it is clear that Juliet has no idea what she wants or what she thinks
about her current situation, and the rest of play doesnt get any better in that area. Meanwhile,
Romeo seems like he could not care less that hes dead, and the fact that he murdered Paris,
which is slightly alluded to but never fully addressed in this draft, has no effect on him (or the
rest of the play) whatsoever. In my revisions of Scene 1, these are the errors I have focused on

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addressing. I have tried to stabilize the relationship between Romeo and Juliet and bring them
into contact with the full force of everything they have done. In terms of craft, I have also tried to
cut down on my stage directions, which read almost like fiction in the first draft and, according
to my mentor, would drive directors and actors crazy and possibly be offensive. This is one of the
ways that having only a semester of playwriting experience has made my process slightly more
difficult than it would have been if I had chosen fiction writing.
The following is an aligning excerpt from the final revision of Scene 1. In contrast to the
first draft, the play now begins in the moment Juliet decides to kill herself, and everything
beforehand is implied or exposed through dialogue.
ROMEO: Julie... Dont do it, Julie. (Juliet puts the gun to her temple. Romeo moves closer to
her.) Put the damn thing down, Juliet! This ghostly existence is not what you want. (Juliet
hesitates.) Drop it, Julie. Save yourself from this place while you have the chance, please.
(Beat.)
JULIET: No. Fear will not keep me, Romeo. Ill be quick and come to rest.
(Romeo tries to stop her, but he cant.)
ROMEO: Stop it! JULIET, NO! (Juliet fires and kills herself.) Oh God... (Romeo sinks to his
knees. He tries to touch Juliet but is unable to.) Why? (He looks up at the sky.) You could at least
let me hold her!
(Juliet opens her eyes.)
JULIET: Romeo?
ROMEO: Julie? Juliet, I told you not to! (He grabs her by the shoulders.) Why didnt you listen
to me?
JULIET: Told me not to do what? Romeo, youre scaring me. Were together. Isnt that what
matters?
(Romeo helps Juliet to her feet. Her corpse appears onstage.)
ROMEO: Just look around for a second. We arent exactly in paradise. (Juliet tries to look at her
feet so she can get her bearings.) I said look around, not down! (He moves her away from the
corpses. Juliet looks and sees the corpse crumpled up next to the car.)
JULIET: Paris. Id forgotten. Where is he? If hes dead, he should be here. (Beat.) And you killed
him. Didnt you?
ROMEO: Yeah, I killed him. I killed him to avenge you.
JULIET: Romeo, he rear-ended me!
ROMEO: Well, I thought you were dead! And I was not going to let him just walk away when he
was the murderer.

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In this revision, I maintain conflict but by giving the characters equally good points
against each other and a solid position that they do not suddenly go against. Juliet is happy to see
Romeo, but Paris was a fellow Capulet and someone she respected. Meanwhile, Romeo loves
Juliet and consistently exerts that love through overprotection, which presents itself as anger.
Paris also plays a larger role in this revision and in the revision of the play as a whole. Although I
have not completed a full revision of the play, I have a clearly revised outline that will guide me
in transferring from my first draft, which was focused on Romeo and Juliet nagging at each
other, to my revised draft, which is focused on how Romeo and Juliets relationship is foiled by
the ongoing struggle between their two Houses and explores the difficulties of love through those
differences.
Throughout this process, a good day began with me making it to the writing labthe
only place on campus with the Final Draft software I need for playwritingwithout having to
deal with Campus Security. Once I started writing, the words would flow easily and match the
outlines I had already thought through, or if they didnt match the outlines, I was at least able to
make the scenes come back together and connect in a way that made sense at the time. A bad day
was any day I felt overwhelmed by how much I had to do and could not formulate a plan for
completing what needed to be done. Probably the worst day was the day of my rough draft
workshop when I found out my work from the first half of the semester made no sense, and I had
no idea where or how to start revising.
Speaking of revision, I had originally planned two full draft revisions and one significant
partial revision in my project proposal. Although that did not happen, I still put a lot of time and
effort into this project through extensive outlining and character processing. I believe that this
pre-work will help me as I continue writing and revising, and it has saved me from writing a lot

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of things that would have ended up deleted anyway. Before I even began my first draft, I
completed a Premise Exercise, an 8-Sequence Plot outline, and a revised Premise Exercise based
on the plot outline. After the rough draft workshop, I revised my plot outline heavily, and this
new set of sequences is what will guide me through a full revision of my draft. In addition, I
have written three drafts of Scenes 1-2 and two drafts of Scene 3 using my revised plot outline.
In closing, I would like to address the three creative writing samples from my previous
classes at Lee University that are included in my final portfolio. First, I included The Spiders
Dance: An Imitation of Moths by Helena Viramontes because this was the first creative piece I
wrote in college that really delved into my personal struggles. I had written before on causes I
cared about or scenarios that intrigued me, but The Spiders Dance pulls from my experience and
focuses on the effect of strict religion with no explanations on children. Although this is not a
theme explored at depth in my Practicum, the sense that mindless ideologies are dangerous is
present in both projects. In The Spiders Dance, the ideology is religion, but in Touching the
Other Side, the ideology is politics and socioeconomic privilege.
Second, I included Hell, Heaven, and Unbelief, which is a spiritual memoir that further
explored the themes and feelings that were bubbling to the surface when I wrote The Spiders
Dance. In this memoir, I face the harsh truth that there is no baseline reason for me to believe in
God and that my belief has been lived out for many years because of fear of the alternative.
Similar to Juliet in Touching the Other Side, I find the reality on the other side of a fairy tale that
has been fed to me by my parents and my culture. For Juliet, that fairy tale is the concept of
undying romance. For me, it was the concept that I could go on believing what had been spoonfed to me for years without going insane.

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Finally, I included Baked Spaghetti, which has been an instrumental piece in my
development as a writer. Although this play is not necessarily impressive in and of itself and
could use plenty of revision, it showed me the world of playwriting in a very tangible way
because I experienced it being acted out in Fringe Fest. Without my experiences writing Baked
Spaghetti, Touching the Other Side, at least in its current format, would probably never have
come into existence.